3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the need for environmental impact assessments? (OAQ51026)

‘Environmental impact assessment’ refers to a formal process set out in regulations for assessing, consulting and coming to a decision on specific projects required by the Environmental impact assessment directive. Where EIA is not required, the environmental effects of proposals are considered by various consent regimes before development commences.

How can you call yourself the Cabinet Secretary for the environment when your Government has issued a licence to let material be dredged from outside Hinkley Point nuclear reactor and be dumped in Welsh waters just outside Cardiff? What’s worse is that an environmental impact assessment was not carried out by Wales’s environmental watchdog. No dose of radiation is acceptable for human health. So, it beggars belief that you would allow material from a nuclear—nuclear—site to be dumped in Welsh waters. So, why are you taking this huge risk? And will you now revoke the licence until a full and proper study of the potentially radioactive material has been carried out by Natural Resources Wales?

I’m unable to comment on a specific determination process that was carried out some years ago, but I can assure you that all marine licence applications are considered in line with legal requirements, which are set out in Part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2007. The regulations provide procedures to determine the need for an EIA on the project, and I understand a valid marine licence is in place, and there are conditions that need to be complied with by the licence holder before any disposal can take place.

Looking at the environmental impact assessment of the combustion engine, both diesel and petrol, I wonder what environmental impact assessment has been done on the air quality in school playgrounds, because I had a visit today from St Teilo’s Church in Wales High School, where I’m also a governor, and that is one of the schools identified by ClientEarth as one of 1,000 schools across the UK that is suffering from really damaging levels of air pollution because of their proximity to roads. I just wondered how many of these nearly 1,000 schools are in Wales.

I can’t give you a specific answer on the number, but we do know that Welsh schoolchildren can be exposed to high levels of pollution when they’re travelling to and from schools, just as much as when they’re on the school grounds. The Member will be aware that we have begun to engage with a wide range of stakeholders to help shape work around the clean air zone framework for Wales, and that’s also being done through one of the sub-groups on my ministerial Brexit roundtable.

Swansea council states that the natural assets of the area of outstanding natural beauty provide an opportunity for economic growth and that they are important for well-being, and such benefits must not be compromised by new development that fails to safeguard or enhance the natural asset and ecosystem of the AONB. Can you tell me why the AONB isn’t a statutory consultee with an obligation to provide evidence in planning applications for land that’s directly adjacent to AONB land? This has become a material question, now, for my constituents in Gower, where the LDP anticipates the construction of 20,000 houses. Thank you.

It’s really important that any decision makers around any organisation take decisions in the full knowledge of the environmental impacts, but I will certainly be very happy to look into this and write to the Member.